Sir Keir Starmer has promised to "rebuild the UK's asylum system" and deploy MI5 spies to tackle illegal migration.
The Labour leader today unveiled plans for a Border Security Command force if he gets into No10, describing the migrant crisis as "one of the gravest challenges we face as a nation" and a "test of seriousness for all governments and would-be governments".
He took aim at Sunak's Rwanda scheme, dubbing it the "latest gimmick" that "will not work".
This comes just one day after GB News revealed that more than 9,000 small boat migrants have crossed the English Channel so far this year.
Sir Keir Starmer has promised to "rebuild the UK's asylum system" and deploy MI5 spies to tackle illegal migration
GB NEWS
That figure is 35 per cent higher than the 6,691 who crossed the Channel at the same point last year.
Speaking in Dover this morning, Starmer said: "Tackling organised crime is always hard, especially across borders.
"This is a criminal enterprise that we are dealing with – a business that pits nation against nation, that thrives in the grey areas of our rules, the cracks between our institutions, where they believe they can exploit some of the most vulnerable people in the world with impunity.”
Starmer also said he is pushing for a new European security pact in order to achieve a bilateral approach to tackling criminal gangs.
Taking aim at Sunak's migration policy, he questioned whether the "latest gimmick, the Prime Minister's Rwanda scheme, can really be taken as a serious solution to this important challenge. I don't think so."
He added: "They will get flights off the ground, I don't doubt that, but I also don't doubt that this will not work. A policy that will see just a few hundred people removed to Rwanda each year. Less than one per cent of the people who cross the sea in small boats each year.
"Less than one per cent for £600 million. That is neither an effective deterrent or a good use of your money.
Starmer took aim at Sunak's Rwanda scheme, dubbing it the "latest gimmick" that "will not work".
PA
"Then you look at the rest of our border system - it's like a sieve."
He said criminal gangs are using migrant camps "as a job centre for modern-day slavery".
Official Home Office figures show that 250 migrants made the illegal journey in two small boats since Monday.
Those arrivals took the total tally for 2024 to 8,796.
However, GB News can confirm that another three small boats arrived on Thursday.
The Border Force vessel Ranger brought 54 migrants to Dover harbour just after 8am today.
Just three hours later, the British border patrol vessel Volunteer brought another 74 migrants to the Border Force processing centre in Dover.
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On Thursday evening, another Border Force vessel arrived in the port with 76 migrants on board.
Including today's arrivals, the total number of small boat migrants who have crossed from France since the New Year is 9,030.
That figure is 35 per cent higher than the 6,691 who crossed the Channel at the same point last year.
